New-car blow for Jaguar

Jaguar discovered problems as soon as it ran the R3

Jaguar have suffered a major blow in their preparation for the new Formula One season by discovering that their car has a design flaw.

Jaguar suspended pre-season testing to investigate a serious problem with the car's front wing.

The device is not generating as much aerodynamic downforce as Jaguar expected and the team are having to design a new one before resuming testing.

Front wings are a vital part of the overall design of an F1 car, in which aerodynamics are by far the largest determining factor in performance.

We are disappointed that the downforce from the front wing is not as much as we thought it would be

Jaguar spokesman

The front wing determines the airflow over the whole car, so a problem with it affects the performance of many other parts.

A Jaguar spokesman said: "We have a lack of downforce from the front wing. The figures generated in the wind tunnel are not consistent with those out on the track."

The discovery is bad news for a team that were hoping to significantly improve their performance in 2002 after two disappointing seasons.

It will be especially difficult to take because it is the first car produced by Jaguar's new design team, which joined at the end of 2000 too late to significantly influence production of the 2001 car.

Jaguar has spent this week comparing the new R3 car with last year's R2 model in straightline tests in Lurcy-Levis in France in an attempt to understand the problem, the spokesman said.

"We will now redesign the front wing section, which will run on Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday in Barcelona."

The front wing of the car lacks downforce

The spokesman said that the team had discovered the problem at the car's first test in early January. He insisted that it was "not an aerodynamic problem with the whole car".

He added: "The R3 has aerodynamic gains over the R2, but we are disappointed that the downforce from the front wing is not as much as we thought it would be.

"The car is 30kg lighter this year, so if we can fix this problem, we'll have a faster car [than last year].

"And we do understand the problem, as opposed to being lost."

The news will do little to reduce the pressure on Jaguar, amid speculation that parent company Ford may be running out of patience with the team's lack of success.